There's little money to be had in shad. It's more compulsion than vocation.

According to an old legend among the Mi’kmaq of eastern Canada and northern New England, an unhappy porcupine appealed to the Great Spirit to change his lot in life. The Great Spirit turned the creature inside out and tossed him in the river. Thus, the shad was born.

There’s only one reason the mild, sweet-fleshed shad isn’t a mainstay of the dinner table, or rather, there are hundreds: all those bones. The American shad skeleton is notoriously difficult to navigate, and so demand for the fish had diminished over the years, as has the population of the species in the Delaware River and elsewhere.

The fish still has its fans. Among recreational fishermen, the American shad are known to be elusive and put up a good fight. Gourmets still prize the torpedo-shaped lobes of roe traditionally fried in bacon fat. And scientists and environmentalists consider the delicate fish a barometer of the health of the river in its which it swims.

Despite a new ban on fishing for American shad in New Jersey rivers beyond the Delaware — part of a larger push along the Eastern Seaboard to study why the population has been in decline — it’s been a banner season so far for Steve Meserve, who operates the last shad fishery on the upper Delaware from a tiny island just north of the New Hope-Lambertville bridge, which bodes well for this weekend’s Shad Fest there.

Sue Meserve of Lewis Fishery hauls a net that will be used to catch shad on their annual pilgrimage up the Delaware to their natal waters. Michael Mancuso/The Times of Trenton

American shad spend most of their life at sea, but return to their natal rivers in the spring to spawn. Meserve and his mostly volunteer crew — there’s little money to be had in shad, so it’s more compulsion than vocation — caught 164 fish on April 15, the largest haul by far in the last decade. In fact, he caught more shad that one day than he did for six of the last 10 seasons.

For comparison, the largest season-long haul on record is 9,288 in 1896. Hefty hauls continued through the 1930s, when pollution started to take its toll on Delaware River shad. A 2007 study showed an all-time low for American shad, mostly due to overfishing, habitat loss and degradation (sometimes due to damming), and bycatch (in which shad are swept up by fishermen targeting other species), which led the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission to institute new policies to help the population recover, according to Kate Taylor, the senior fisheries management plan coordinator.

The Delaware River population is low but stable, so the New Jersey officials merely kept in place a limit of three fish a day for recreational fishermen. There isn’t enough data available for other rivers, so a ban on American shad fishing (outside of catch-and-release) is now in effect on the rest of the state’s rivers.

Meserve believes the recent higher levels on the Delaware, which make it easier to maneuver his nets, is behind this season’s prodigious catches. He also speculates that these fish were the babies of the healthy 2010 season, all grown up and ready to spawn themselves — the marine version of Baby Boomers.

Russ Allen, a supervising biologist with the New Jersey Division of Fish and Wildlife, says the decline of striped bass, a shad predator, may play a role as well.

Meserve and his crew fish every weekday night at dusk and on Saturday mornings; whatever doesn’t get sold gets thrown back. “They’re more valuable to us going up the river,” he says.

The customers have been making the dusk trek to Lewis Island for years. Meserve, now 52, says he recently received an e-mail from one man who remembered him as a boy, just starting out in his grandfather’s boat.

Shad rose has long been considered a delicacy. Hamilton's Grill Room will offer cooking demos and tastings during Lambertville's Shad Fest this weekend. Martin Griff/The Times of Trenton

Regardless of the fish’s popularity or population, Lambertville’s Shad Fest goes on. Now in its 32nd year, the festival attracts thousands to the small, artsy Delaware River town. Dozens of artists and craftspeople from the region will be selling jewelry, ceramics, furniture and home decor, clothing and more, and there will be shad fishing demonstrations at Meserve’s Lewis Fishery, children’s activities, live music and food beyond shad.

Shad lovers should eat early and often, because food has been known to run out. There is shad chowder and shad wraps at Ennis Market (5 N. Union St.); grilled shad outside Lambertville Station (11 Bridge St.), and from 1 to 3 p.m., shad roe cooking demonstrations and tastings at Hamilton’s Grill Room (8 Coryell St.).

In addition, you can catch a screening of “They’re in the River,” a short documentary about the fishermen (including Meserve) and scientists who are devoted to saving Delaware River shad. There will be showings at 7, 8, 9 and 9:30 p.m. at the Acme Screening Room (25 S. Union St.) and tickets are $8-15. For more information, go to acmescreeningroom.org.

Meserve and his crew will be on the river at 1 p.m. Saturday and Sunday for the festival. If you’re interested in cooking some shad for yourself, he’ll be selling only until 2 p.m. Saturday, same price as always: $6 for the female (for the roe) and $4 for the male. “I tried to change it one year,” Meserve says, “and I couldn’t sell a thing.”

IF YOU GO

Shad FestWhere: Lambertville business district
When: Saturday and Sunday, 12:30 to 5:30 p.m.
How much: Free, but parking at two lots on the north side of town with shuttle service costs $10.